The Coal Strike

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 214, 8 March 1912, Page 5

The Coal Strike

A MORE OPTIMISTIC FEELING. GOVERNMENT MEETING THE MEN. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, March 0. Tli" Industrial Council is considering the miners' schedule with the masters' figures, and a more optimistic feeling prevails. The executive of, the Miners' Federation has agreed to meet the Industrial Council. Replying to Mr. Ramsay Macdonald in the House of Commons, the Premier said it was pure imagination to consider that the Government was going to introduce a Bill laying down a minimum wage. The strike position was very delicate, and he hoped it would not be discussed in the House of Commons at present. The Government is meeting the men's representatives to-day. Many Staffordshire and Derbyshire miners attended the Ottoxeter races. Blackpool is full of visitors well supplied with money. Three hundred pit boys at Sunderland raided the paddocks and seized a pitpony apiece, and executed a wild midnight gallop through the villages. Many Yorkshire miners are following the hounds on foot. Gramophone shops in Wales are crowded, and the picture-theatres at Pontypridd are open continuously. Wholesale houses are refusing to supply tradesmen in mining communities except for cash. Many of the shops are closing. NO SIGNS OF YIELDING. UNIONS' COFFERS DEPLETED. SHIPBUILDERS ON STRIKE. Keceived 7, 10.30 p.m. London, March 7. The strike situation is unchanged, and there are no signs of yielding. The strike is slowly tightening its grip on every industry. The trades union leaders are anxious in regard to the depletion of tieir funds through the idling of various industries. The Amalgamated Kail way Servants' Society are faced with £20,000 weekly for unemployed pay. The Amalgamated Railway Servants' Society's executive, in reply to certain branches, declare that in view of the miners' favorable position, there is no reason for combined action. The committee pdd that they are unable to sanction the refusal to work the troop trains. They also forbade the Bermondsey branch, which works under syndicalist influence, to hold a demonstration at Trafalgar Square in reference to the miners' strike. Two collieries at Swansea are flooded, owing to the men refusing to pump one. The Bishop Auckland collieries are closed permanently. Four hundred Oxford undergraduates have offered their services to work the mines. Cutting off of the electricity supply at Sheffield during the daytime has idled many factories. At Aberdeen, the lighting and tramway services are being curtailed. Fifteen hundred of Cammell and Laird's engineers at Birkenhead have struck for a shilling increase. The firm declare that if they are expected to pay higher wages than elsewhere, they must recognise that the Mersey is no more suitable for shipbuilding than the Thames, and make their arrangements accordingly.

THE PFOPLE'S AWAKENED CONSCIENCE. Received 8, 12.50 a.m. I/ondon, March 7. Mr. Emmot, a Commoner, speaking at the Congregationalists' demonstration at Lancaster, declared that rises in wages during the past ten years were inadequate. Enormous numbers were living in abject poverty, and the present social unrest was due to the people's awakened conscience, which it was the churches' duty to strengthen.